Facing foreclosure in Missouri? Start here.

This page is free. There is nothing to sign up for, nothing to buy, and no form you have to fill out to read it. If you close this tab and never call me, that is a completely fine outcome.

My name is Mike Hostetter. I buy houses here in the St. Louis area, and I am also a licensed Missouri real estate agent. I will be straight with you about my interest: some people who read this page end up selling me their house. Most do not, and a lot of them should not. I put this together because in my experience the single biggest problem for someone behind on payments is not money. It is that nobody has told them plainly how the process works or how much time they actually have, so they freeze, and then the clock runs out on options they never knew they had.

1. Three phone calls worth making this week

If you do nothing else on this page, make these calls. All three are free.

Your loan servicer, and ask for the loss mitigation department

Not customer service. Loss mitigation is the department whose entire job is working out alternatives to foreclosure. Ask them two specific questions: what is my reinstatement amount and what is it good through, and what workout options am I eligible for right now. Write down who you spoke to and when. People avoid this call because it feels like walking into the principal’s office. It is the highest-value call you can make.

A HUD-approved housing counselor, 1-800-569-4287

These are federally approved nonprofit counselors. They are free, they are not selling anything, and they will sit with your actual numbers and your actual loan documents. They can also contact your servicer with you. If you only make one call, make it this one. You can also search for a counselor near you at hud.gov/findacounselor.

A lawyer, especially if you qualify for free civil legal aid

Legal Services of Eastern Missouri provides free civil legal help to qualifying households across 21 counties in eastern Missouri, including the St. Louis area: 1-800-444-0514 or 314-534-4200. If you do not qualify, The Missouri Bar runs a lawyer referral service. A single consultation is worth it before you sign anything, and it is essential if you are considering bankruptcy or if you think something about your loan was handled improperly.

2. How the Missouri timeline actually works

Missouri is a non-judicial foreclosure state. That means for most home loans the lender does not have to sue you or go in front of a judge. A trustee named in your deed of trust can conduct the sale after giving the notices the statute and your loan documents require. The practical consequence is that Missouri moves fast, faster than most states, and waiting for a court date that is never coming is how people lose months they needed.

Roughly, here is the sequence.

Stage	What is happening
Missed payments	Late fees, calls, letters. Under federal servicing rules your servicer generally cannot make the first foreclosure notice or filing until you are more than 120 days delinquent. That window exists specifically so you can apply for a workout.
Demand and acceleration	The servicer demands the full balance rather than just the missed payments. This is the point where a lot of people stop opening mail. Keep opening it.
Successor trustee appointed	A document is recorded with the county Recorder of Deeds appointing the trustee who will conduct the sale. This is public record, which is how investors and other companies suddenly know your business and your mailbox fills up.
Notice of sale	The trustee must mail you written notice of the sale at least 20 days before the sale date, by certified or registered mail, and publish notice in a newspaper. In larger counties that means publication roughly 20 times running up to the sale, and in smaller counties four successive weekly issues, with the last one within a week of the sale.
Trustee’s sale	A public auction, typically at the county courthouse. The lender itself often bids. Whoever buys takes title, and the process of removing anyone still living there follows.

From the first foreclosure notice to the sale can be as short as a couple of months in Missouri. Do not assume you have a year. Find out your actual sale date if one has been set, and put it on a calendar where you will see it.

3. Your real options, laid out plainly

Nearly everything available to you falls into one of these. Which ones are realistic depends on your income, your equity, and how much time is left.

Reinstate the loan

Pay the past-due amount plus fees and costs, and the loan goes back to normal as if nothing happened. Missouri statute does not give you a blanket right to do this, but most standard Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac deeds of trust do, usually up to a defined point before the sale. Check your deed of trust and ask your servicer for a written reinstatement quote with a good-through date, because the number grows.

Repayment plan or forbearance

Spread the arrears over a number of months on top of your regular payment, or get payments paused or reduced temporarily. Best fit when the hardship was real but is now over, like a job loss you have recovered from.

Loan modification

The servicer permanently changes the terms, for example by adding the arrears back onto the loan balance or adjusting the rate or the term. Applications take time and paperwork, which is the argument for starting early rather than three weeks before a sale date. A HUD counselor can help you assemble the package.

Refinance or pay off

Only realistic if your credit and income still support it, which is often not the case once payments are behind. Worth exploring early rather than late.

Sell on the open market

If you have real equity and enough time, this usually nets you the most money. A listed sale with a good agent, marketed to retail buyers, will typically beat any cash offer including mine. The catch is time, condition, showings, and the fact that a sale has to actually close before the trustee’s sale date. If you have 3 months and a house in top condition, list it.

Sell directly to a buyer

Faster and more certain, with no repairs, showings, or commissions, and you can usually pick the closing date. You will not get retail price, but you will get enough to solve this problem and avoid a foreclosure or bankruptcy, allowing you to walk away with your dignity and be able to start over.

Short sale

If you owe more than the house is worth, the lender may approve a sale for less than the balance. It takes lender approval and time, and you want the deficiency question answered in writing before you agree to anything.

Deed in lieu of foreclosure

You hand the house back voluntarily. Usually only makes sense with no equity and no other liens, and again, get the deficiency treatment in writing.

Bankruptcy

Filing triggers an automatic stay that generally stops a scheduled sale, and a Chapter 13 plan can allow you to catch up arrears over time. This is a decision to make with an attorney, not off a web page, and not the night before a sale.

Do nothing

It is a choice and sometimes people make it deliberately. Know what comes with it: the credit damage, the loss of any equity you had, and in Missouri the real possibility of a deficiency judgment described below.

4. Two things almost nobody tells you

One more, less commonly useful: Missouri has a limited right of redemption after a trustee’s sale, but only when the foreclosing lender is the one that bought the property at the sale, and only if you give written notice of your intent to redeem at the sale or within the ten days before it, and then post a bond within the short window the statute allows. Third-party buyers cut off that right entirely. It is narrow, it is strict, and it is not a plan. If you think it applies to you, that is a lawyer conversation immediately.

5. How to spot a foreclosure scam

Your name is in public records now, so expect volume: letters, calls, texts, and people at your door. Most are legitimate businesses. Some are not. The tells are consistent.

• Anyone who asks you for money up front to save your house. Under Missouri law a foreclosure consultant cannot collect a fee before fully performing, and legitimate housing counseling is free.
• Anyone who wants you to sign over your deed, or asks you to sign documents with blanks in them, or will not let you take the paperwork to someone else first.
• Anyone who tells you to stop talking to your lender or to send your mortgage payments to them instead of the servicer.
• Anyone who guarantees a result. Nobody can guarantee what your lender will do.
• Any deal where you sell but stay in the house with a promise you can buy it back later. These can be legitimate in rare cases and are a classic vehicle for stripping equity in most. If someone puts one in front of you, take it to an attorney before you sign. Not after.

You can report suspected scams to the Missouri Attorney General’s consumer protection hotline at 1-800-392-8222 or file a complaint at ago.mo.gov.

6. If selling turns out to be the right move

This is the part where I tell you what I do, and you should read it knowing I have an interest.

I buy houses directly in Jefferson, St. Charles, St. Louis City and St. Louis County. Cash or flexible terms, closing on your timeline, bought as-is with no repairs, no cleaning, and no showings, and no commissions or closing costs out of your pocket. You deal with me, not a call center.

Where I am the wrong answer: if you have significant equity and more than about sixty days, list the house on the open market instead. You will very likely net more, and any honest buyer will tell you the same thing. Where I tend to be the right answer: a tight calendar, a house that needs work, a property you no longer live in, or a situation where certainty matters more than squeezing out the last few percent.